Well, it’s going to be very confusing if you have not read the manga. Because the manga starts when Ryuji is 5 years old and it really builds up the rivalry and friendship he has with Jun, and how and why Ryuji got into boxing. You get little background story with the main characters so those not familiar with the manga are going to be puzzled. Putting both seasons together, the anime takes out a lot. Like the first season of the anime omits when Ryuji confronts a gang that dresses up in KISS make up. Like that wasn’t screwed up enough. Those are beginning of some of the changes.A lot of the characters will come across as trendy to you, but keep in mind that for its original publication, they were the originals. They were the creators of the kinds of characters you see today in your typical Shounen Jump manga. They tend to be one dimensional with their personalities. Like Ryuji is your all around I can be happy or sad when I need to. Jun is the silent and egotistical prodigy. Katori is well intended natured comic relief. Shinatora has some permanent injury and doesn’t really bitch about it. And Takeshi is the sadistic over powered being.And other characters from the manga that are present in the anime is Napolean from team France, Skorpion from team Germany, and Black Shaft from America. And yes, the characters are very badly stereotyped. In the manga, they are worse then how they were stereotyped in G Gundam!!! In the manga, the Germans were portrayed as Nazis!!! And when I get around to reviewing season 2. You’re going to laugh at how the Americans are portrayed!!!So yeah, if you like good fun and humor and something simple. The story of this anime is probably for you. If you want something deep and educational, yeah frickin’ right. Granted the characters are one-dimensional like I said, I still believe you can relate to them and they are captivating because they do have their reasons for why they are the way they are.The character designs are of course very easy to recognize if you’re a fan of Saint Seiya. Maybe it’s not the best in terms of art, but still easily one of the most distinguishing because of the way it is drawn if you are at all familiar with Kurumada Masami. The diversity of the character design is decent. Like he can have ugly characters, or bishounen type of characters in a generic sense. He’s very good at drawing expressions to help bring out emotions that make you respond. But he recycles the same design over and over to his next projects. I mean, Ryuji looks almost no different from Seiya except with different color hair and clothing. Then again, they both wear red.I say the design can still be acceptable for the right reasons just mostly because it’s recognizable and the style Masami has is just limited to him. It’s very hard to describe his overall style rather than it’s still old school. Even with his current works his design is not very updated. Like with Morikawa Jyoji’s Hajime no Ippo, another boxing manga, when you see the art of its initial publication to how it is now after nearly 20 years, you see a huge evolution and change in the art style. While with Masami, he’s been doing manga much longer than Morikawa and it’s still the same. Sometimes when you see the current mangas of Ringu ni kakero 2, you wonder if it was at all made back in the 1980s. But for the anime, the art is still faithful to the manga but yet the colors and resolution and the animation itself brings it up to today’s way or doing things.I am a big fan of old school, but I sometimes believe that artists should evolve their style to modern day standards.OK, I think I went on too long with that part of the review, now time to talk about the animation, the flow, the fights. OK, the fights themselves are not your typical boxing matches. Not as technical as Hajime no Ippo’s, and not really the kind of street fights you see in Ashita no Joe. You are literally getting fireballs and wind attacks and everything you can think of. I say for its time, it was very original, and hell, like I said, this was the original, but exposing this to modern day audiences is just going to turn them off. A huge majority of western hardcore anime audiences do not tend to respond well to the sports genre from what I’ve seen first hand on websites and forums, and I think this just feuls the hate. I mean, you think it’s safe for the referee and judges at ring side to throw a punch that makes a hurricane? C’mon, what are they thinking? It’s just you wanna say WTF to yourself when you see this anime when you see the fights. I thought it was something different in comparison to Hajime no Ippo and Ashita no Joe was why I tolerated it, and the fact I also happen to be a Saint Seiya fan does help. Of course a certain portion of the attacks will be similar to some you will see in Saint Seiya. Like Jun’s Galacta Magnum will influence Seiya’s Pegasus Ryuu seiken. So, I guess because of this manga’s attacks, we can have animes like Naruto, DBZ, Yuu Yuu Hakusho and Prince of Tennis.The seiyuu cast is top notch. Top favorites such as Koyasu Takehito and Midorikawa Hikaru happened to have been casted. Koyasu Takehito plays Black Shaft, who is supposed to be your 1970s jive talking African American boxer. That’s quite a role to give him. And Midorikawa Hikaru plays the Jr. Champion of Germany, Skorpion, who is referred to as Furher. Morita Masakazu, the voice of Ichigo in Bleach plays the main character Ryuji, and was also the new voice of Seiya in Saint Seiya. Another hit actor Okiayu Ryotaro, who has played Yuu in Marmalade Boy, Trieze in Gundam Wing, Tezuka in Prince of Tennis, and Andy in Gundam SEED plays Ryuji’s rival Jun. And Ryuji’s sister Kiku is played by Tanaka Rie, who plays Chii in Chobits and Lacus Clyne in Gundam SEED.The cast each do their own great job of portraying the characers. Midorikawa as Skorpion is very great at portraying him as quiet, cold and calculating. Koyasu Takehito as a jive talking black guy is quite bizarre. But he plays people in the past who have upbeat personalities in a Japanese sense, so I guess he was the best choice to play Shaft. Morita as Ryuji does an excellent job of bringing out his well rounded personality. And Okiayu as Jun was apporpirate for Jun’s personality who you can say is sub consciously a narcassit. And Tanaka Rie as Kiku is very different from her high pitched sounding roles as Chii and Lacus. This time, she sounds tougher and much deeper to where she’s notRecognizable.The music I thought was another high point to this anime. The opening and ending themes are very high intense and upbeat and it helps you get into it. They both tell stories of going through hardships and how the hard work you’re putting yourself into pays off. The guitars are just excellent and really addictive. The songs were specifically meant for this anime, and not for the sake of like promoting a hit song from your favorite jrock band or jpop singer which is what I liked about it and Saint Seiya in the past with their iconic songs were like that. So because of my personally biasness of my favorite seiyuus and how I enjoyed this anime.
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